Johanna Speaks

Ezra's birthday is also today, and he's turning 18. But he wanted to say he graduated at 17, so we had his graduation a day before his birthday. 

We got to celebrate yesterday and had smoked ribs, Spanish rice, cucumbers, and some other vegetables. It was so delicious. Some friends and family were over, and we watched Ezra open up presents, and my brother Nicholas made a toast. After lunch, we hung out watching old shows, and then my brother-in-law came over and brought ice cream. We then went to the pool and swam. After the pool, we all headed back to the house, had ice cream, and ended the night with a game of Uno. 

Ezra went to bed, and some of us still played Uno. Eventually, we stopped, and our friend went home (literally lives across the street from us) except Cameron. He was already super tired, and it wouldn't be a good idea to drive all the way back home. So he stayed the night and even went to wish Ezra a happy birthday in his bed at midnight. 

To be fair, I was the first to wish him a happy birthday. I stayed up for another two hours just cleaning the house since I had nothing else to do, and I needed to stay awake until midnight. I waited at his door at 11:59 until it was time. I even recorded myself saying "happy birthday," so I had evidence that I was first. I think Ezra was pretty confused because I woke him up, and he kept saying "okay?" and "what?" after I told him happy birthday. But at least I was first! Also, in the video, I wished I had gotten his face, but if I did show his face, I would be blinding him with my iPhone's flashlight. I don't think he would enjoy that very much. Anyway, here's the video:

Our whole family, except Caleb, Risa, and Benji, came out to North Carolina for the wedding! It was so much fun. We left on Thursday (23rd of April) and came back Sunday night (26th of April). The wedding was on Saturday. 

We flew out of Sacramento at 10 PM and arrived in North Carolina at 6 AM. So, yeah, we didn't exactly get any sleep. It was about a five-hour flight. And North Carolina is three hours ahead. 

Once we landed, we picked up our car rental and then went to Starbucks for some much-needed coffee. It was about a two- to three-hour drive from the airport to the Airbnb, but we stopped at some stores to get food for the house and some shoes for Sophie. 

The White family (Elizabeth's family) owns the Airbnb we stayed at because that's their business, and they have many more Airbnb rentals in different areas. It was a gorgeous house on a ski slope. The house could accommodate about 30 people. And actually, we shared the house with many different families. It was a lot of fun and cool to see all the different rooms. So yeah, it was a full house! 

The day we flew in, that night, there was going to be a bonfire at the White's house. We went and had a great time! We got to meet her family and friends and have a delicious dinner with homemade bread and stew. So good! 😋 I also made a friend named Daniel. He was so cute! I think he was three years old. He just started hiding from me while I was having dinner, so I played along, and eventually we made a secret handshake, played lots of tag, and he let me hold him a lot, too. I had no idea whose kid it was.😂 One thing that made me so happy was when he crawled into my lap without me even knowing he was there. I just felt something trying to crawl up. It was so cute!!

Saturday, we just rested at the house and hung out. We walked to a nearby store/coffee shop. We explored it and then went back to the house to get ready for the wedding. 

Once everybody was ready, we headed to the wedding about an hour early. It also takes about an hour to get there. We got into our seats and waited for the wedding to begin. Here are some pics and vids from my phone:

We had a blast!! Lots of dancing afterward, too, which was so fun! I also got to help serve cake to people with some other girls. At the end, we all made a line, and Gideon and Elizabeth went through it while we threw rice at them. One of the groomsmen held Gideon down and stuffed rice in his shirt. Then they were off! 

Even more dancing began after they left, but we started cleaning instead of dancing since our family was about to leave. The rest of the day, we hung out with family and went to bed kinda late. 

The next morning was Sunday. We went to Elizabeth's family's church and then had lunch at their house afterward. It was such a beautiful sunny day! After that, we went to the airport and got dressed in our travel clothes. 

After landing at Sacramento airport, we drove to In-N-Out and had dinner. We finally got home at 1 AM on Monday.

Ezra will be leaving today (Feb 16th) for France. He's going to visit my grandparents in Marseille, then visit some cousins of ours in Holland and some other places. (I forgot which exact places he's going to, other than France and Holland.)

He will be going alone and will be away for about a month. 

We have cousins in Holland that he's never met, so it will be pretty exciting for him. I think one of the cousins is his age too, so they will probably have a lot of fun together. And when I say cousins, I mean cousins once or twice removed on my mom's side. We have three cousins in total from our parents' siblings. 

His flight today is at 6:30 PM at the Redding Airport. Which is nice, so we don't have to drive all the way down to the Sacramento airport like we did when I went to France. 

So he'll have to fly through the night, with a 6:30 PM flight from Redding, arriving at his destination about eighteen hours or so later. It sounds pretty tiring to me. I remember going from Denver, Colorado, to Munich, Germany, and it was a ten-hour flight. I hated that so much. Having to sit for ten hours straight. Other than that, the rest of the flights were fine, only being two hours or four hours max. 

I think he will be coming back sometime in mid-March. He's very excited to go and can't wait to see his cousins and grandparents. 

While I was in France, my grandma took Sophie and me to a marketplace. There were all kinds of stuff—clothes, food, jewelry, etc. It was a really cool and fun experience to be there. I was really hoping to find a dress, since that was one of the things I wanted to get while in France. 

As we walked past various items, I saw a long dress that looked very beautiful on a mannequin. So we all stopped and went to see if there was a dress in my size. My grandma asked the guy who was selling them if they did ( since he only spoke French), and he brought one to us. The smallest size he had was a medium/small. So we got it. 

 Once we got back to my grandma's house, I tried it on. It was a little big around the waist. But I thought I could probably do some sewing on it once I get back to my own house. 

When we were back in California, I took out my sewing machine and started sewing, trying to see how I could make it tighter around the waist. But I couldn't get it right. So eventually I thought maybe I could make it into a skirt. I cut the top off. I wanted the skirt part to be very long, so I made it a high-waist skirt. Then I folded the part where I had cut it and sewed that so it wouldn't fray. It was a little loose around the waist, so I folded it a bit from the inside out and then sewed it to just where I liked it. 

It worked! I even wore it to church on Sunday with a black shirt on top. I also had a black belt, so I put that on too. Here is a picture that my mom got while I was about to walk out the door to church: 

Nicholas proposed to his girlfriend, Noemi, about a month or two ago, and of course, she said yes! The wedding date is October 4th. They will be having the wedding in Lake California at the Lake Club, out on the grass. 

Noemi will move to California sometime at the end of September (since she lives in New Jersey). 

I'm excited to have another sister-in-law!😁 It's going to be awesome! She's super sweet and awesome to be around. She also has a beautiful singing voice and hopefully will sing for our church. And she cooks amazing Mexican food. She's perfect for Nicholas because he has more of a quiet personality, and so does she. But she can also be extroverted when she needs to be and can socialize really well with people. And she's a Christian, of course. She's perfect for him. I'm so glad my brother picked such a wonderful person to marry. 😊 I'm already imagining the little, cute children they're going to have. 😂 Imagine a Nick Jr. So cute! 

Okay, so for Noelle and Cameron's wedding, I wrote a poem for them and recited it out loud on the mic. And for Nick and Noemi's wedding, I wanted to write a poem for them too. I haven't started writing it, so I'd better do that. But it would be cool if I made it a tradition for the rest of the boys when they get married. Just write a poem for each wedding. 

Here are the engagement photos: